“The Thing Inside Jacky Jensen’s Garage” and The Function of Freedom

Posted on By CarynPosted in Books, Publishing, Writing

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved horror stories. They’re the first thing I started writing, and I love telling short, weird, spooky tales every chance I get.

♫ Spooky spooky, you’re the one. You make my life so much fun… ♪♪

Earlier this year, I wrote a short story called The Thing Inside Jacky Jensen’s Garage as part of an online horror workshop (the workshop was fantastic, BTW – if you want to get into writing short horror, I wholeheartedly recommend Monaria’s Fright Club). The story was inspired by a few brief mention in Mysterious Universe of a monster sighting in Huntsville, Utah, near Pineview Resevoir:

Also in June of 2005 was a sighting of a creature that really defies easy categorization in an old cemetery near Huntsville, Utah. The witness claims that he was walking through the area with some others when they were startled by a short, squat humanoid creature about 3’6” tall, with a hairy body, reptilian facial features, and, oddly, “noticeable protruding nipples.” Also rather strange was that it supposedly smelled exactly like bleach. Upon seeing the approaching group, the baffling creature made a loud gagging sound and bounded away into some woodland at speeds of up to 30 mph. The main witness would say of the encounter:

“When we first saw it, it was walking upright however appeared to be hunchbacked, when it noticed us it froze and stared at us before dropping to all fours and scampering off, it’s movements much similar to a fleeing deer.”

Something about that tidbit really grabbed me. I love that even though it was in a cemetery, the creature they encountered sounds more like something out of the Black Lagoon than anything that crawled out of a crypt.

I took that monster and ran with it, but because I’m obsessed with exploring human relationships in my short stories, The Thing Inside Jacky Jensen’s Garage focuses more on the college student who stumbles onto this creature than on the creature itself.

Later, I entered the story into a writing contest based on the Toni Morrison quote: “The function of freedom is to free someone else.” I felt like my story was a good fit for the theme, and the judges agreed!

Okay, I wrote that three times and it keeps feeling like I’m Ron Swanson winning a chair award. “Recently, I made a chair. When I was finished, I thought it was a good chair. I submitted it to the Indiana Fine Woodworking Association, who felt it merited consideration for an award.” (smiling and laughing to himself) “It’s been a real whirlwind!”

The prize for the contest was getting my story published in the League of Utah Writers 85th anniversary commemorative anthology, The Function of Freedom. I’m really proud of my story, and honored to be part of this beautiful collection of poems, fiction, and personal essays about freedom.

The Function of Freedom is available in ebook and paperback from Amazon, and I’ll be ordering paperbacks for my personal stock soon if anyone would like a signed copy. I hope you’ll check out this fantastic collection of standout writing from around Utah!